Jason O’Halloran extends BSB lead to 119 points

2021 British Superbike Championship
Round Six Cadwell Park

2021 BSB Cadwell Park – Race 1

Peter Hickman became the sixth different race winner of the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship season, claiming FHO Racing BMW an emphatic first race win in the series in front of a rapturous home crowd at Cadwell Park.

At the start, Jason O’Halloran hit the front of the pack, narrowly moving down the inside of Glenn Irwin with Hickman holding third. However, by the time the pack had reached Chris Curve, Glenn Irwin had taken the lead for Honda Racing.

Irwin was trying to break the field; edging out an initial gap of 0.8s over the opening laps, but behind Hickman had made a decisive move on O’Halloran to move into second.

By the seventh lap Hickman had reeled Irwin back in and the advantage had vanished. Irwin made a small mistake to run slightly wide and Hickman didn’t need an invitation as he dived through to take the lead.

Hickman then unleashed a series of fast laps, breaking the lap record with a time of 1m:26.350s, to gap O’Halloran and Irwin, before taking the chequered flag in front of an ecstatic crowd.

However, the podium fight wasn’t over and whilst O’Halloran had moved into second, Irwin was soon under pressure from Tommy Bridewell.

The Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider had left it to the final laps to carve his way through, taking no prisoners to grab the final podium place on the penultimate lap to push Irwin into fourth.

Christian Iddon was able to get to the front of the next pack, moving ahead of Lee Jackson and Andrew Irwin in the closing five laps.

Ryan Vickers, who set the fastest ever lap of Cadwell Park yesterday, was eighth as he bounced back from a high-speed crash in qualifying.

Rory Skinner and Josh Brookes completed the top ten.

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2021 BSB Cadwell Park – Race 1 Results

2021 BSB Cadwell Park – Race 2

Peter Hickman made it a double dose of victories for FHO Racing BMW in the second Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Cadwell Park, despite come under pressure on the final lap from standings leader Jason O’Halloran.

O’Halloran got a tremendous launch off the line to lead the pack on the opening lap but Hickman was instantly on the attack. However, it wasn’t until lap nine that he could make a pass on the McAMS Yamaha rider, diving down the inside on the brakes at Mansfield.

Hickman continued to try and break the pack, edging out an advantage over O’Halloran but the Australian reeled him back in over the final three laps. The McAMS Yamaha rider was within striking distance on the final lap, but despite piling on the pressure, Hickman had the edge at the chequered flag.

The battle for third was initially between Christian Iddon, the region’s fastest plumber Lee Jackson, and the Irwin brothers, but disaster struck again for the VisionTrack Ducati rider when he crashed out of third at Charlies unhurt on lap four.

Jackson then had the upper hand for FS-3 Racing Kawasaki, but Tommy Bridewell was storming through the pack after another bad start, running in eighth on the opening lap.

The Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider first moved ahead of Glenn Irwin, and then hit a top three position with a decisive pass at Coppice on lap 14, pushing Jackson back to fourth.

Bridewell was able to break the group behind him, but reigning champion Josh Brookes had been building momentum throughout the race from his fourth row start, and was able to force his way through to fifth with three laps to go.

The lone VisionTrack Ducati rider held off Glenn Irwin, who was then embroiled in a fight with his brother Andrew, as the pair exchanged blows throughout the closing stages, but it was the Honda Racing rider who had the edge at the chequered flag.

Andrew Irwin’s seventh place put him just ahead of rival BMW rider Bradley Ray, who currently holds the final place in the top eight of the standings for the Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW team.

Ryan Vickers, still feeling sore after his high-speed qualifying crash was ninth as Storm Stacey again returned to the top ten for Team LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki.

Tarran Mackenzie was watching from the sidelines after the McAMS Yamaha rider decided to sit out today’s races after breaking his finger in his race one crash yesterday.

2021 BSB Cadwell Park – Race 2 Results

2021 BSB Cadwell Park – Race 3

In the final race, O’Halloran hit the front to take the initial advantage off the line, but by the time the pack had reached Park, Glenn Irwin went for a move down the inside to grab the lead.

O’Halloran was then pushed back into third place when Hickman made a move on lap three, before the FHO Racing BMW rider was able to take the lead at Mansfield two laps later.

Bridewell again had one of his bad starts off the pole position, which dropped him down to fifth on lap one, but by the sixth lap, he had wrestled his way through into third place.

The leading trio remained the same as the previous two races with Hickman and O’Halloran ahead of Bridewell, until the closing stages.

Hickman managed to save a big moment on the final lap, but it meant that he lost momentum at Coppice. O’Halloran seized the opportunity and made a decisive move down the inside at Charlies.

O’Halloran was able to hold off a counter attack to score his first race win at Cadwell Park, and with it claims the Milwaukee Summer Grand Slam Trophy. Hickman meanwhile took second place and his highest points’ score of this round crowned him Milwaukee King of the Mountain.

The battle for fourth was between Brookes and Jackson, which went down to the wire. Brookes had made a spectacular pass on Jackson and Glenn Irwin in the early stage of the race to move into fourth.

Brookes continued to defend hard from Jackson, but the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki rider was able to match his best season result, making a move with three laps to go to push the Australian back a position. Today’s fifth places marks Brookes’ best result of the season in dry conditions but the defending champion is still only 12th in the championship standings on 105-points.

Glenn Irwin held off Iddon to claim sixth place with Ray in eighth, but dropping out of the top eight in the standings by just two points. Andrew Irwin and Vickers completed the top ten.

2021 BSB Cadwell Park – Race 3 Results

BSB Quotes

Josh Brookes

“The three hours of track time on Thursday helped me get into a bit of a rhythm and being back at a track I like helped this weekend but the improvements we made were still tiny. I can see on track where I’m losing time and, in this series, you can’t afford to give away the time that we’ve been giving away. We still can’t get to the bottom of the main issues but although the improvements have been small, we’ve still made progress and that’s a positive. Two fifth places aren’t where I want to be finishing but it certainly felt better to be fighting a bit closer to the sharp end.”

Christian Iddon

“You make your own luck in this game and that’s two crashes in two meetings which have been my fault. And when added to two when I was knocked off, it’s disappointing in one way but with Taz not riding, I’ve somehow managed to climb to second in the title. In truth, we’ve chased our tail all weekend and I’ve not found a suitable setting despite the team working so hard. We were hoping to get some more data in race two to help for the final race today, but the crash scuppered that. We now regroup and head to Snetterton in a positive frame of mind as that’s where I got my maiden win last year.”

2021 British Superbike Championship Points